Connecting Histories

First published in 2006. The dynamics of ethnicity, diaspora, identity and community are the defining features of contemporary life, giving rise to important and exciting new interdisciplinary fields of study and literature on subjects that were previously seen as the exclusive domain of the social sciences. Connecting Histories is an important contribution to this trend. While using sociological and anthropological theories, its is an innovative historical and comparative assessment of ethnic identities and memories. Romain focuses on Afro-Caribbean and Jewish individuals and groups, investigating the ways in which 'communities' remember their experiences.

Gemma Romain works at The National Archives, Kew on a Heritage Lottery Fund project called ‘Your Caribbean Heritage’, cataloguing and researching colonial office original correspondence from the British Caribbean. She co-edited with David Cesarani, ‘Jews and Ports Cities, 1590–1990: Commerce, Community and Cosmopolitanism’ (Vallentine Mitchell, 2006). Previously, she carried out her Ph.D. at the Parkes Institute, University of Southampton, where she compared and analysed ethnic memories and histories of African-Caribbean and Jewish communities in modern Britain. She was also a researcher and writer for the ‘Connections: Hidden British Histories’ project, a historical exhibition exploring Asian, Caribbean, and Jewish history in Britain. Additionally, she is a Committee Member of the Society for Caribbean Studies, UK, and an Executive Member of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCore).